Project Duration

Tools Used

*This project was divided into two processes. (1) Upgrading the existing site, and (2) Creating an onboarding process. The research will be divided into both parts.

Research: Upgrading Linksee

The research for this project primarily consisted of testing. Since we had an existing product, our task was to find the site usability problems, and make it better. During the research process, we were to keep in mind that our client asked us not to stray away from the existing style guide due to developer constraints.

Testing Site Usability

We tested over 10 users on the existing Linksee website, which is in beta. To sum it up in one sentence, our users had a very difficult time conducting simple flows. Overall, users were frustrated, lost, and confused.

The good news was, users said the value of the site's function is there, and they would probably use the site if it was intuitive.

The Results: Linksee needed a UX revamp.

To find out what changes needed to be made for a better Linksee, we watched our users behaviors and listened to their needs.

In order to create solutions to their painpoints, we created a chart of user priorities to consider for the new Linksee site.

ITERATION PRIORITY CHART:

IMAGE EXPLAINED: The user needs are in order of importance from left to right. How did we get here? The higher amount of users that made a statement, the higher the priority became on the chart.

Site Usability: User Painpoints & Solutions

For each flow, we wrote out user painpoints, and potential solutions. Presented below are three out of the six main flows:

Testing Our Solutions

In order to make Linksee more intuitive for our users, we needed to assure our potential solutions were the right ones.

Therefore, we tested different features & upgrades using paper prototypes.

IMAGE EXPLAINED: The results of our paper-prototype testing helped us come with the most intuitive updates to the existing Linksee site.

All the changes that were made were according to user testing. Each and every little feature, placement, color, hint, etc. was purposely considered for the user.

IMAGE EXPLAINED: Out of all the priorities our users mentioned when it came to iterating the site, we delivered allthe current possible options. The ones that were not delivered were to come in our next steps, or were not changed due to development constraints.

research: linksee onboarding

Comparative Analysis

For our comparative analysis, we deeply analyzed competitor sites' onboarding processes. Then, we came up with a compiled list of features, designs, and functions that were intuitive vs. not intuitive.

The next step was to ask our users what they liked when it came to the onboarding process.

Surveys

Our goal for the surveys was to reveal: (1) if people found value in a bookmarking site, (2) what features they would like, and (3) what kind of onboarding processes they like.

Survey Findings

We found that users found value in a bookmarking tool like Linksee. In terms of onboarding, the users voted highest on these two types:

(1) Learning a new tool, I prefer an interactive walk-through to guide me through the functions and features.

(2) Learning a new tool, I prefer hints popping up as I venture through the platform.

Therefore, we created a hybrid onboarding process that included both an interactive walk through of the functions before the user enters the site, along with tool tips with hints once they enter.

AB Testing: Onboarding

Once we declared the type of onboarding we would be pursuing, we created two options to AB test, and see what our users liked best. One of the options was more "sophisticated", and one was more "humanist".

AB Testing Results

Our test results revealed that our users preferred:

(1) Humanistic language

(2) Clearly expressed examples as to how users can use Linksee

(3) One "instruction" per page

(4) Option to skip onboarding

onboarding wireframes

Below are the deliverable wireframes for part 1 of the linksee onboarding, carefully considering our user's needs.

Persona & User Flow

Our client provided with a persona, that also aligned with our survey results. The needs of our persona were carefully taken into consideration throughout our design.

User Flows

Deliverables & Next Steps

With the back-up of research & testing, our client received high-fidelity wireframes of: (1) the updated version of Linksee, making it usable and intuitive, and (2) the linksee onboarding process and value proposition.

Our next steps would be to add features our users had mentioned they wanted (that we couldn't do to time or development constraints), to continue testing and to make iterations accordingly.

my takeaways

With this project, my team had a particularly large amount of constraints when it came to development, limiting our design abilities. This was a fundamental learning experience as a designer. Instead of having the freedom to create a visual design that we prefer, it was up to us to make a client happy (and of course, a user happy). This project also shed light on the idea that sometimes, creating something from scratch can be less challenging than updating a product that already exists, however, designers don't always have that option.